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Norfolk junior open July 2011
Norfolk treble as junior squash open makes welcome return
Broadland Sports Club at Fleggburgh, Great Yarmouth hosted the first Norfolk Junior Squash Open for many years and produced some great matches, a few upsets, and 3 Champions from Norfolk, with 2 each from Suffolk and Herts
The U11, 13 and15 age categories were held on the first weekend, and in the well attended Boys events honors were divided across the Region. At Boys U11 Jay Ledger (Herts) comfortably beat his twin brother Owen 3-0 to win the title, but the big match of the draw saw Jay scrape past Harry Kitchens 14/12,11/3,9/11,10/12,11/9 in a thrilling semi-final. With Harry then unable to contest the 3-4 playoff Joshua Perkins finished third and Isac Andersson won the Plate 3-0 having earlier been knocked out of the draw by the ever improving Sam McCluskey.
The only all Norfolk Final took place in the Boys U13 event where unseeded Milo Butler had put out the No. 4 and No. 1 seeds to reach the Final, and William Henden (2) had narrowly beaten Connor Adams(3) 11/13,11/5,11/6,8/11,11/7 in his half of the draw. Milo continued his good form into the Final to record an unexpected yet well deserved 3-1 victory. With Billy Beecroft withdrawing, Connor gained a third place finish and hard hitting William Anderson from Scotland proved too powerful for Liam Bond ( Norfolk ) in the U13 Plate Final.
The Boys U15 event was dominated by the lads from Suffolk who provided all 4 semi-finalists. Again 2 brothers contested the final. Ben Turmel, who had done well to overcome County colleague Ed Curtis 12/10,9/11,11/8,6/11,11/3 and older brother Josh Turmel who had had a slightly easier route to the final with 2 comfortable wins and a walkover over the unlucky Harry Anderson from Scotland . Josh again proved too strong for his opponent with a comfortable 11/4,11/4,11/4 win. Ed Curtis went to to beat Ryan Betts 3-1 in the 3-4 playoff
Norfolk gained their second champion in the Girls U11 event where Katie Cox saved numerous game balls in her semi-final against Amberly MacKenzie (Norfolk) to record a 12/10,11/8,11/0 win before going on to a slightly more comfortable 3-0 Final win over Evie Lawrence from Suffolk. Amberly went on to gain a well deserver 3 rd place over Emma Bartley also from Suffolk , and young Ellie Hews from Essex won the Plate with wins over Lucy Cox and Darcie Lawrence.
Amber Marshall(1) from Herts was the strong favorite to take the girls U13 title, and after defeating Claire Jolley(Norfolk) in the semi-final renewed her friendly rivalry with Bonnie Butler, also from Norfolk. Having met previously Amber again proved too experienced for Bonnie who was encouraged by her 11/3,11/6,11/6 defeat and showed progress from their previous encounter. Closest match in the girls U13 event was the plate match between Amber Sparrow(u/s) and Elise Betts (2) from Suffolk which Amber won 12/10,9/11,8/11,11/6,11/8, before going on to overcome Gabrielle Crackwell (Suffolk) 3-0 in the Plate Final.
Unfortunately only 3 girls competed in the girls U15 event where Lucy Turmel completed another family double with 2 comfortable 3-0 wins, and Ailish Reeson (Norfolk) was encouraged by her 12/10,11/9,11/6 win over Katie Webb(Suffolk) to gain second place.
After a one week break the U17 and 19 age groups competed, and produced some thrilling matches and close Finals. In the Boys U17 event William Henden playing for experience was awarded an unexpected ¾ seed based on his Boys U13 Ranking but justified this with a gutsy 8/11,11/6,9/11,11/7,12/10 ¼ Final win over Dan Hutson (Lincs) and followed this win with a close 2-3 defeat to Andrew Paczy-Smith(2) in the 3-4 Playoff. In the Main draw Simon Graham from Northumbria and Daniel Wheeler from Essex were the groups 2 outstanding competitors and produced a thrilling final which could have gone either way. At 2-1 up Simon looked favourite to go on and win, but Daniel worked extremely hard to come back for a well earned 11/5,9/11,8/11,11/8,11/7 win on his return to Tournament squash. Alex Coburn ( Norfolk ) performed well to take the Plate with 3-0 wins over Martin Jolley and Dan Hutson.
The Boys U19 event proved an extremely competitive affair and provided all 8 players with 3 matches each. Thomas Blair (Cambs) recovered from 0-2 down in his first round match to overcome a tiring Adam Sinkins( Norfolk ) 3-2, and followed this with another recovery to beat Alex Williams( Norfolk ) 3-2 in his semi. Jordan Creed (1) also from Norfolk had to work extremely hard to take the second game from the talented Sam Haycock (Lincs) to avoid going 2-0 down before he was able to overcome his younger competitor 5/11,11/9,11/7,11/5 in a pulsating hard hitting match. Jordan went on to record a similar 3-1 win over the over-worked Thomas Blair after again dropping the first game to give Norfolk their third Open Champion. Sam duly finished third after Alex Williams had to retire following a thrilling 15-13, 11-2 first 2 games in the 3-4 playoff, and Alex Oliver (Norfolk) won the Plate after 2 hard fought wins over Aaron Sedgwick and Jake Bond.
The girls U19's also provided a very competitive final match. With Hannah Jones (Essex), Natalie Machin(Bucks), Bryony Paczy-Smith (Suffolk) and Ailish Reeson playing a round –robin series of matches, both Hannah (1) and Natalie (2), proved too strong for their opponents in their first 2 matches and met in a Final. With Natalie at 2-0 up Hannah dug really deep to save match balls and take the third game 15-13 and keep the match alive. Natalie was however able to push home her advantage to close out the match 3-1 to win the group.
Broadland Sports Club would like to thank all the players for taking part in the event, Just Rackets.com for their sponsorship and Kevin Cooke for all his hard work on the Tournament desk over the 2 weekends.
